Into The Dragon's Keep
by Aliccia
Summary: When a Halloween trick to Kaiba goes awry, the gang and SaraOC are stuck in Kaiba's mansion on Halloween night. Will Seto's attitude of nonchalance give away to rage, or will emotions spark between the two most unlikely people. SxS
1. Chapter 1

Into the Dragon's Keep

By: Aliccia

Aliccia: Hello people. This is my first fic, so be nice, please. And it's non-yaoi.  
Ryou: You don't have to be nice...  
Aliccia: Yes you do! Ryou would you do the honors?  
Ryou: -cringes- Do I have to?  
Aliccia: -glares daggers at Ryou-  
Ryou: I'll take that as a yes. Here it goes: Aliccia does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! and she never, ever will nor does she own any value or product mentioned in this fic, except Sara, who is her own OC.-gasp-  
Aliccia: that wasn't to hard was it? On with the fic!  
Ryou: -faints-

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Chapter 1

Jack o' lanterns dominated the windows in the homes and shops that lined Domino City streets. Each carved pumpkin was lit by a single long black candle, shining out against the blackness of the night...there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the spirit of Halloween and mischief was in the air.

Yami stubbornly shook his head as he argued with Yugi outside the Kame Game Shop's garage. Yugi Motou, a teen with spiky tri-colored hair, and amethyst eyes, stared at his Yami in disbelief.

"YAMI! PLEASE! You have to carve a pumpkin with us. It's Halloween! Everyone carves pumpkins on Halloween!" Yugi implored to Yami. Tea Gardner and Ryou Bakura, hand in hand, walked up the sidewalk to where Yugi and Yami were still arguing.

"Yugi, I do not carve pumpkins! I haven't carved a pumpkin in almost 5000 years!" Yami argued back with his light. A stern and determined look was upon his face. The pharaoh did not carve pumpkins if he didn't wish to. Personally, Yami was under the belief that carving pumpkins was a waste of good pumpkins...why carve a pumpkin when it could be made into a wonderful tasting pie, which happened to be Yami's favoritepastry treatthat Mrs. Motou made.

"Oh my!" Tea exclaimed. "They shouldn't argue! Friends aren't supposed to argue..."

"Tea, not now! Not again!" Ryou cried out, causing Tea to glare at him, just interupting her friendship speech. He smiled warmly at her and her frown melted away into a sigh. She put her head on Ryou's shoulder as they walked closer to Yami and Yugi.

"Hey Ryou! Hi Tea!" Yugi called as he rushed around Yami to his two close approaching friends and hugged them. Backing away, he told them of the Yami situation.

"Yami! Yugi is right, you have to carve a pumpkin. It's only tradition," Ryou stated matter-of-factly. Tea nodded vigorously. She smiled as she thought of something.

"You know, Yami, Sara is coming and she really wanted to carve a pumpkin with you," Tea grinned from ear to ear. Yami stopped dead in arguing, thinking about the beautiful French exchange student he had fallen in love with, and to a certain messy haired blonde, it looked like Yami was a deer staring into car headlights. He grinned as he walked over and gave Yugi a noogie.

"JOEY! Not the hair; it took me an hour to get it like this!" Yugi wailed, desperately trying to fix his noogie-fyed hair. Joey beamed. Tea smacked him on the head.

"What was dat for?" Joey cried out, rubbing the back of his head where he and Tea's hand had made her final contact.

"Because of what you did to Yugi's hair," Tea exclaimed exasperated at the blonde teen in front of her. Joseph Wheeler had been a part of their little group that the teens had going from the start. Everyone knew that he had a crush on Mai Valentine, a beautiful long haired blonde, who was obviously infatuated with Joey. When they had finally gotten together, all of the gang had sighed in relief. It had been quite hard trying to get those two together.

"Sorry Yuge," Joey said as he looked over at Yami. "Ya gonna carve pumpkins wit us, Yami?"

"No, " Yami said, as Tea, Ryou, and Yugi all said "Yes." Joey stared at the Pharaoh in disbelief.

"But what about Sara?" Tea questioned. Yami glared at her.

"If she shows up...I'll think about it," Yami replied coldly. He slanted his crimson eyes in Yugi's direction. "And that is final, Yugi!"

"Yami, please..." Yugi whined softly to him. The two spiky tri-colored hair teens stared each other down. Yami gave his worst crimson death-glare, that was meant for dueling purposes only, and Yugi gave Yami his best puppy dog eyes. Soon the group all caught on, and Tea, Joey, and Ryou were all giving Yami puppy dog eyes. Ryou wanted to die with laughter. He could tell that Yami was coming dangerously close to either banishing them all to the shadow realm or succumbing to the stares of the innocent pumpkin carvers. Yami, himself, could feel his strength breaking. He had never been able to say 'no' to his hikari about anything, from one more duel to getting him more sugar cookies from the store, even though Yami knew that Yugi would suffer from sugar high that night and the many days to come until they ran out of cookies. Anger boiled inside of him. He could beat top duelist Seto Kaiba, but he couldn't even win a stare down with Yugi.

"FINE! I will carve a pumpkin!" Yami couldn't believe he had just said that. He had so hoped that he would have won this fight just this once, but yet again, Yugi had beat him. Yami felt like an older sibling to his small hikari, unable to refuse his wishes, and no matter how exasperated and tired of Yugi he got, he could never let him down.

"So the pharaoh is carving pumpkins," Mai Valentine teased Yami as she gave Joey a hug, her thick, long, and curly hair fell in front of his face and hiding the red blush that was creeping into Joey's cheeks.

"ACK! Mai! You should give a guy some warning." Joey screamed but gave Mai a hug back.

"What fun would that be then?" Mai asked. Joey as always looked totally perplexed by the question. Mai just gave Joey another hug and buried her face in Joey's green coat. "What am I gonna do with you, Joseph Wheeler?"

Everyone, including Yami for a change, laughed at the two of them. The gang headed to the garage where Yugi's grandpa, Solomon Motou, had laid out tarp for the pumpkin carving and the party that would ensue shortly after on that Friday afternoon. Joey and Mai walked in first, hand in hand. They chose a seat and sat themselves down. Ryou slipped an arm around Tea's waist and the two walked in together. Just as Yami was about to walk in through the garage door, someone from behind him grabbed his forearm and pulled him backward. A loud shout was heard from Yami as he hit the ground. The group peered out of their garage to see a very disgruntaled Yami sitting on his rump, looking very disoriented, and a young girl with black hair and black eyes sat on Yami's lap, smiling mischievously.

"Ma savour! Merci beacoup!" Sara declared as she kissed Yami on the cheek. "Salut, Yugi! What's up?"

"Nothing but the sky!" Yugi teased the small dark haired, black eyed French exchange student that Yami had fallen in love with. Sara was funny, much like Joey was, but she put her own little twist on everything. It was this reason that she and Yami had gotten together. But there was sometimes a problem in communication. She talked so fast that she sometimes spoke in French. But she was getting better.

"Tu est tres amustant, Yugi Motou!" Sara giggled as Yami, having managed to stand up and pick Sara up, carried her into the garage, bridal style with Yugi following shortly behind. Everyone grabbed their pumpkins and sat down in the traditional ceremonial circle of pumpkin carvings. Yami still a bright pink from Sara's light kiss on his cheek, although everyone knew that he would never admit it. Yugi, brought out a plastic bag from the hardware store that was overflowing, and slowly one by one, he began to pass out the ceremonial knifes, spoons, candles, and one match per person. All was silent as Yugi continued to pass the items out of the seemingly never-ending bag...until...

"I'M HERE! " a small but powerful voice screamed. " WAIT FOR ME!" Mokuba Kaiba, raven black hair flying out behind him, ran into Yugi's garage carrying a pumpkin of his own and looked around the group. "Hi, everybody. Sorry I'm late. Seto wouldn't let me out of the house until I cleaned my room. It's gotten so bad that the maids refused to clean it this time." Mokuba smiled as the group chuckled softly at his entrance. Joey seemed to be the most afflicted with giggles and small laughing fits.

"And people say we girls are the worst at maintaining giggle control," Tea smiled as she placed her head on Ryou's shoulder. He in turn kissed her forehead.

"Hey Mokie, glad you could make it. Sit down," Yugi said and patted the tarp next to him. Mokuba grinned and sat down next to Yugi, placing a large orange pumpkin in front of him. Yugi passed Mokuba his very own set of carving materials.

Everyone commenced talking. Mai and Joey talked about his failing grade in geometry and how she could help him.

"You cannot fail geometry! No one fails geometry!"

"I do!"

"I could help you raise your grade, Joey."

Ryou and Tea talked about how they had just celebrated one month of going out together yesterday.

"I cannot believe we have been together this long!"

"I know..."

"Strange isn't it?"

"Yea."

Sara was trying aimlessly to teach Yami French:

"...Bon-jour."

"Finally! Now on to 'what is it'...you say, 'Qu'est-que ce c'est'. You try."

"No."

"YAMI!"

Mokuba was talking to Yugi about how his brother was designing a new type of duel disk:

"It's like the old one, only this time, we have a few more cool gadgets that we have added on. Seto wants to have it out by Christmas."

That caught everyone's attention. The garage went into hushed silence as all of the duelists in the room stared at Mokuba, waiting to hear more about the new system.

"How much does it start at?" Joey asked Mokuba curiously.

"Ni-sama isn't finished with it yet, but he said that it would be more expensive than the last one," Mokuba admitted. "You won't tell anyone about this, will you? Ni-sama would be furious with me. No one is really supposed to know, yet." A smirk crossed Mokuba's face, and he looked so much like Seto is was laughable.

"M.o.k.u.b.a.," Mokuba imitated and angry Kaiba. His eyes went to the famous Kaiba slit and he glared down at an invisible Mokuba. Everyone laughed. "You told THEM!" Joey rolled on the floor with laughter, Yami laughed with Sara and Yugi, Tea giggled like a preschooler, and Ryou grinned at Mokuba.

"Enough! Stop... Mokuba..." Joey breathed through his laughter.

"JOEY!" Mai tried to grab him, but it was to late.

With a sickening, 'SQUISH!', Joey was covered in pumpkin gore and seeds. Now it was Mokuba's turn to laugh along with the others, as Mai, helpless with laughter, tried to clean a very sticky and unhappy Joey up.

-------------------------  
Back To Serenity

Placing the last trash bag in the trash can, Serenity walked back up to the front of the house that she called home. She walked in the front door and smelled the fresh scent of Pine-Sol and looked around the living room that she had just cleaned. Every beer can and bottle in the place had been picked up and thrown out. Ashtrays were cleaned out of their ash and cigarette residue and were cleanly polished. All of the wood was well polished and cleansed with Murphey's Oil Soap. The carpet had been vacuumed and she had taken the time to steam clean it and she had let it dry before vacuuming over it again. The old and worn out sofa was neat and in order, no longer did she have to fight through a sea of magazines to sit down. The TV had been glass cleaned as had the front windows. The old wine colored armchair of her fathers was neat and clean. Magazines were piled into racks next to the sofa, and the coffee table was repolished and repainted a toupe color. Serenity was pleased with her handiwork. She had hung Joey's bookbag on the coat rack above his shoes; hers lay in her room.

Next, she walked into the kitchen, hoping that she hadn't missed anything really important. A small table was in the center of the room, nicely polished, with four chairs sitting around it. Even though she and Joey only needed two chairs, Joey was apt to inviting people over, henceforth there were two extra chairs. A black marble countertop sparkled in the afternoon sun. In one corner there was a black refrigerator filled to the brim right now with 'welcome home' dishes, and next to that stood a black dishwasher. The stove stood in the other corner, a black electric stove that she had come to love. The kitchen tile was black, but was illuminated by whitewashed walls and a gorgeous mini chandelier. Serenity sighed again as she looked around her new home. She could hardly believe that someone could trash this house and not clean it. But, she reminded herself, that the uncleanliness was the reason that she and Joey had been able to start making payments so quickly. Serenity was able to hold down a job at a cafe, making and serving the drinks while her friend Tea worked the cashier.

Now Serenity walked around the other rooms of the house. There was the bathroom on the ground level that sparkled, and Joey's room was finally cleaned, thanks to her. The green walls were lightly cleaned and the beige carpet was visible...finally. Her brother's bed was made neatly with his green comforter and sheets, and his desk was organized neatly; his duel deck and card went right on top of the desk. the overhead light was clean and the bulb was brand new, shining in all of its glory. The bathroom on the ground floor was entirely Joey's domain. Serenity was determined that she would clean it once a week, but during the week it was totally up to Joey. All of the walls on the downstairs sections were painted in a splendid shade of toupe. She had designed this herself after Joey had decided that he wanted the lower section of the house as his.

Serenity climbed the stairs, to her floor. Serenity wished for nothing more on this day than to enjoy the solstice and the silence of her room. As she climbed she noticed subtle differences from her brother's floor. The upstairs contained only a small hallway, her large oversized bedroom, and her private bathroom. The walls were painted in a wine color, and the carpet was a blanket of thick and soft white snow. She walked towards her room and opened the door with a happy smile.

"Home at last." Her room was painted in the same wine shade as outside, but it was furnished with black and darkwood accessories. She had a full length mirror on the side of her black door. Her carpet was black and her two dressers and desks were painted and glossed the same color as her door. She loved it here. It was the darker side that her quiet demeanor never got to express in the open. Most thought her to be "that quiet Serenity Wheeler person," the nice, silent little sister of that crazy Joey Wheeler. She loved who she was, but she let herself be expressed in her room and in the colors that she wanted to paint it. She flopped down on her bed and it's soft black sheets. All she wished for was sleep.

Until her phone rang.

"Hello? Serenity Wheeler speaking," she spoke into her cell.

"'Ren are ya comin' to Yuge's for the party? Everybody's here ya know. We were hoping dat you would come on over to the game shop and hang out wit us." Joey chirped. Serenity could hear Mai arguing with Joey over the phone. "No Mai! She's my sista!"

"Serenity? Where are you girl? You had better get your scrawny self over here. Yugi and Yami have been talking about your safety through the mind link." Mai's voice came through the phone in a scream. Serenity held the phone away from her ear.

"Mai, how on earth would you know about that? Yugi and Yami's mind link can't be heard." Serenity said twisting her fingers together in a mixture of board-ism and semi-interest.

"Call it girl's intuition, and Yugi asked me if I knew where you where and how you were doing." Mai added, smiling at the look of concern on Yugi's face for Serenity.

"I'll be right there Mai. See ya soon." Serenity hung up the phone and decided to change clothes from her school uniform. She searched until she found a pair of hip-hugger flares and a small black tee-shirt. She smiled at the appearance she saw in the mirror and grabbing her bookbag, she walked out of her room. Running down the stairs, she stopped only to put on her black high-top boots. She grabbed her keys and walked out the front door into the setting afternoon sun.

At The Game Shop

"She's comin'!" Joey practically screamed on his way into the garage to meet the group. He tripped over the door stop and landed on Ryou's back.

"Joey! " Ryou cried as he tried to regain his composer. "What are you talking about?"

"Serenity is comin'!" Joey said proudly as he pointed to his watch. " And she should be here any minute!"

-Yami/Yugi mindlink-

'Yugi? Does this fact help soothe your mind?'

'Yami, I still worry about her and Joey. They just moved into that new house to get away from their father and all she has been working on lately is that house. I just want her to be happy and to see that she has friends that she can trust.'

'Well she is on her way...'

' I know...and I can hardly wait!'

Back to Serenity

The cool autumn wind whipped Serenity's long auburn hair back from her face as she walked towards the Kame Game Shop. She pressed on down the busy suburban streets, filled with many men and women with little children, each searching for the perfect costume for Halloween trick-or-treating on the special spirit/candy/sugar high night that was not too many days away from occurrence. She was stopped for a moment as a call pierced her ears.

"'Renity! 'Renity!" A little boy screamed running at her. She turned and opened her arms as a little boy jumped into them. She spun him around.

"Hey Sam! Where's your mom?" Serenity asked. Sam was her boss's first and only child.

"Momma is right over there. She and I are picking me out a new costume for Halloween," the brown haired, brown eyed child whispered. "I gotta go though before Mommy sees that I am gone. Bye 'Renity!" and with that the little child had jumped out of her arms and was waddling his three year old form back to his mother's side. Serenity watched as Sam pulled on his mother's sleeve. His mother looked up and waved at Serenity.

"Seren!" She waved her over across the sidewalk. Serenity dutifully came to her managers beckoning call.

"Hi, Mom," Serenity said, using the familiar nickname the woman was given at the cafe, as the short plump middle aged woman pulled her into a tight hug. The woman's real name was Kate Milo. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a pony tail and she wore a pair or blue jeans with a green sweater.

"How are you, honey?" the woman questioned looking very much concerned at Serenity. She was like a makeshift mother to Serenity. But Kate was like that. All of the employees that worked for her were treated with the utmost care and respect, and Kate was nicknamed "Mom" at the cafe. Kate absolutely loved the name and it stuck. "And you can call me 'Mom' even outside the cafe, everyone else does," she smirked.

"I'm great, Mom. Tired, but that's to be expected when you move into a new house," Serenity explained, pulling herself away from the hug and using the wonderfully placed nickname.

"Oh. How is everything going with your brother and his girlfriend...that Mai character," Kate said.

"They are great. Everyone in the group is really happy that they got together. Speaking of the group, I have to meet them for pumpkin carving tonight and I am already late...I gotta run," Serenity said looking distressfully at her watch.

"And not one moment longer shall I keep you, my dear, but can I ask you a favor?" the woman implored.

"Sure, Mom...what is it?"

"Tea called off on Halloween night because she and that nice young man Ryou are going out, and I was wondering if you could fill in for her that night. Please?" the woman asked as she looked down at her son who was showing her a scary costume with blood running down the bones of the fake mask. Serenity smiled at the sight.

"Yeah, I can cover for Tea that night. I am not doing anything. Day shift or graveyard?" Serenity asked.

"Graveyard, I take dayshift because I have to take Sam trick-or-treating that night. So Tristan is watching over the store with you, and I think that you two are capable of being in charge," Kate smiled up at Serenity who's jaw had dropped.

"Tristan!" Serenity thought of the day before when Tristan had been working the counter, he was so intent on staring at her as she delivered the drinks, that he rang up three customers wrong.

"If he starts acting like a love sick puppy, just ignore him. I knew I could count on you Seren," Turning back towards her son, she smiled. "Come on Sammy, let's chose you a costume."

And as soon as it had started it was over. Serenity watched as the two searched for a perfect costume. She turned on her heel and continue walking to the game shop.

"Curse you, Tea. Oh, I am gonna get you back for making me work with him," she muttered underneath her breath, not paying attention to where she was headed. And currently, she was heading straight on at trouble.

Suddenly, Serenity slammed into another person. She fell backwards on her rump to the sidewalk.

"Watch where you're going," a cold voice said. The man turned around and Serenity looked up to see icy blue eyes glaring down at her. She moved her hair nervously out of her face.

"I am very sorry, Mr. Kaiba," Serenity said, her face turning a thousand shades of red from embarrassment. She looked down at her fingers that she had folded into her lap, looking very much like an innocent two year old child. All of the sudden a hand was in her face. She looked at it curiously.

"Are you just going to sit there?" Kaiba asked coldly again. His mood seemed very testy to Serenity and she took his hand and he pulled her up off the ground gracefully with his strong grip. It was then that she realized just how tall Kaiba really was. She was so close that she could feel his warm breath on her forehead, as she looked up at him. She took a step back.

"Thank you for helping me, Mr. Kaiba," She bowed and then quickly continued on her way, never noticing that a certain CEO's eyes had never left her retreating form.

Aliccia: -shaking Ryou- Come on! The first chapter's done!  
Ryou: -waking up- Really?  
Aliccia: Yea! Yippee for me!  
Ryou: Don't you have something that you want to tell them.  
Aliccia: Oh yea. The characters ages  
Yami: 17  
Yugi: 17  
Tea: 17  
Ryou: 17  
Sara:17  
Mokuba:14  
Serenity: 16  
Seto: 18  
Seto: It's Kaiba to you...-glares at Aliccia-  
Aliccia: I get it! I get it! -runs and hides from Kaiba.-  
Ryou: Please read and review


	2. Chapter 2

**Into The Dragon's Keep**

Ryou: Aliccia? Aliccia? Where are you?  
Aliccia: -whispering- Over here, hiding from Seto, er, I mean Kaiba.  
Ryou: I don't think that he's here anymore. -pulls Aliccia out of hiding spot-  
Aliccia: Thanks a million.  
Seto: I'm still here.  
Aliccia: Have mercy!  
Seto: ...  
Aliccia: Thank you all of my wonderful reviewers:

Lynn10- Thank you for beta-ing, and I am really happy that you liked it.

Lynn10: Not a problem. No more run-on sentances!

Aliccia: Okay! Sorry about that.

SwordPrincess- I am very glad that you liked it, and I will update as soon as possible.

SwordPrincess: Finally! It took you long enough to update.

Aliccia: Sorry about that too...But it wasn't all my fault! The computer wouldn't let me on the internet! Blame the computer...-sob-

lilxangelxsweetz- Thank you! Your review really brightened my day. I love Seto and Serenity pairings too!

lilxangelxsweetz:Keep reading people! This is gonna get really good!

Aliccia: Thank you! Oh and I am open to suggestions about the next chappie. Please send it in a review or in an email! Again, lilxangelxsweetz, thanks for a great review.

lilxangelxsweetz: Welcome.

Crystal of dark- Really? My story is great? Thank you so much! It's my first attempt at a story on FanFic, and I all of the nice reviews that people sent me are really boosting my confidence.

Trinity09- All shall be revealed soon, I promise! I felt so bad for Serenity, having to make her work on Halloween, and yes, something is going to happen on Halloween...

BelleBelle3- Thanks! I know that you don't really like Seto and Serenity pairings, but you really gave me some wonderful ideas on my story. Thanks again!

Snow Mouse- Yes, the Halloween party is at Yugi's house. I hope that you liked the story and will continue reading. Thanks for reviewing!

svakee2000- I had hoped that this story would pass on the Halloween spirit. I am glad that you liked the first chappie.

Fanactic- lol, and thank you. Here's the continuation!

ItsJustMeg- Thank you for putting me on your favorite list! I am really glad that you enjoyed the fic. I love Seto and Serenity pairings too!

To all those who read this story and didn't review- Thank you for taking time to read it, and please, if you would be so kind, review my chapter for me. I now accept anonymous reviews. Thank you all again, and I hope that you enjoy!

Aliccia: Okay, now on to the disclaimer. Would one of you do the honors? -looks at Ryou and Seto-  
Seto: No.  
Ryou: I did it last time.  
Aliccia: All right, I guess I have to say it this time. -takes a deep breath- Okay, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, or any other value that may appear later on in this chapter...sadly...  
Ryou: -pats Aliccia's back- It's okay. That had to be painful.  
Aliccia: -burst into tears-  
Ryou: Oh, no!  
Seto: -sighs- On with the fic.

**At Kaiba Corp**.

The late afternoon sun shone into the office on the top floor of the Kaiba Corp building, illuminating the white walls. The office carpet was a beautiful shade of dark blue. It was set in contrast to the brightness of the wall. The mahogany double doors glimmered, as they had been cleaned and thoroughly polished earlier that day. The doors flew open and none other than Seto Kaiba walked in, bringing with him a cold aura and it seemed as though the sun shrank back from the office as the teen sat down behind his mahogany desk. He set his silver briefcase on top of it with a bang that resounded from across the room. His head pounded with a migraine as colors whirled by him and the sun stung his eyes. Plopping down in a very un-Kaiba-like manner, he opened one of the desk's various drawers to reveal a bottle of Advil. Opening the bottle, he shook out two of the small white tablets and popped them into his mouth. He swallowed quickly, hating the bitter taste of the medicine as it dissolved onto his tongue. Closing his eyes, Seto waited for the medicine to begin to work. He heard the doors to his office open, but he still did not open his eyes. Something was placed on his desk and he heard his secretary's sharp intake of breath as if she was about to say something, but wisely close it and walk quickly out of the door from which she had come in.

It was then that Seto finally opened his eyes and looked at the thing that was placed on his desk. He saw a large, white, cylindrical container, which he presumed carried the ultimate force of life (or _his_ at least...): coffee. His hand reached out to grasp the cup and he slowly brought it to his mouth, savoring the aroma that filled the air. He drained half of the cup in one gulp and, although his mouth was scalding, he felt refreshed and the headache was gone. He was able to focus more clearly, and with that he brought out his sleek, blue laptop. Setting it on the desk, he turned it on and began to look through his e-mails. Many of them were from other businesses that wanted to work out business deals.

"I'm sure...join forces with Kaiba Corp..not in this life," Seto murmured as he read through each and every one. Could they honestly be that stupid, asking Seto Kaiba to merge with their third rate companies? What they wanted was to join forces, collect a large paycheck, and let Seto, his team, and sometimes Mokuba work on all of the hardware. Seto sighed and read on. One e-mail was from Dice Boy Duke Deviln, creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters, who was asking him again if their companies could merge, an offer which Seto had resolutely put down from the very beginning. He and Devlin had never exactly what one would call "civil" to eachother. The last two e-mails were from Mokuba. Seto read through these messages with amusement:

_I am so bored. Math class is horrible! How can you stand it all day? I g2g, Ms. Siemms doesn't look to happy with me right now._

Seto laughed inwardly. Mokuba, who was allowed to bring his laptop to school with him, had always hated math class and would frequently write Seto e-mails when he was in said same class. Many of the teachers complained (this Ms. Siemms woman imparticulary), and Seto had told Mokuba time and time again that he was not allowed to write him e-mails in math class. Mokuba was to pay attention and write notes on the lesson so that Seto could help him better understand the math when he came home. Seto made a mental note to take away Mokuba's laptop from him during the school week.

The next e-mail was dated for today, and it had just previously been sent an hour and a half ago. That meant that Mokuba was out of school when he sent this.

_Hey Ni-sama. I won't be home until later tonight at around nine-ish. I'm at Yugi's house for the pumpkin carving party. Everybody is here. It's cool! Cya later. _

Ah, yes. The pumpkin carving party at Yugi's. Seto remembered now. Mokuba had been begging to go for a week and Seto had finally relented on one condition. Mokuba had to totally clean his room before the party, and if he could accomplish this feat then Seto would let him go. Miraculously, Mokuba had managed to clean his room, and Seto, being true to his word, let him go to Yugi's little party. _'Everybody is here'_ got Seto thinking. That would mean Yugi, Yami, Tea, Ryou, "The Mutt", Mokuba, Mai and Sara, the groups newest member. And maybe more, depending on whether or not Dice Boy was included and possibly that girl that hung out with Yugi and Joey a lot. The one who was always flunked by Taylor and Devlin, craving for her attention. He never actually saw her face, just a few long strands of red hair. He had briefly wondered who she was and how she could stand being around "The Mutt" all of the time. He pushed the thought out of his head and opened up a program for Duel Monsters. He had been working nonstop on this since the beginning of this month and he almost had the computer programming part finished. His agile fingers worked their way quickly across the computer keys, placing a new feature here, and a better feature there. He looked at the design and smirked at his own work. It was perfect. Now that the programming was finished, he would have to leave it in the hands of the incompetent building team. He quickly made a copy of the program onto a CD, printed out some blue prints, and called in his secretary.

"Yes, Mister Kaiba?" A woman with dark brown hair and brown eyes spoke boldly. The woman had worked for the Kaibas since Gozaburo's reign of terror and she had stayed faithful to Seto throughout his ownership of the company. She was readily available and at his service whenever he called. She knew it was said that he went through secretaries as fast as he could hire them, and she was proud of the fact that she had been in her position for almost six years. He did, however, like to fire anyone else in the company he saw fit.

"I need these sent directly down to the labs to be worked on. Tell them that if they don't have it done and perfected by the end of the week they can consider themselves fired," Seto demanded of the middle aged woman in front of him. She walked over to the desk and picked up the CD, manilla folder, and various papers that pertained to the program Seto had been working on. She was almost to the door when she heard Seto call again. "And I need a large cup of coffee."

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba, right away," She smiled as she closed the door, and proceeded to the lab technicians.

**Yugi's House**

Serenity walked up the street towards the Motou house which was also the Kame Game shop. The afternoon sun hit her eyes directly and she squinted. Her mind wandered to the point where she had ran into Seto Kaiba, or as Joey so fondly called him, Money Bags. Joey had always told her that Kaiba was a snuck up snob, who cared for no one but himself and his money, and that he would rather kill you than look at you. Serenity had always thought that her brother exaggerated a bit. Mokie was an entirely different person from Seto, and Seto had raised him. Besides, Yugi had always said that although Seto was cold hearted, he wasn't totally evil. Joey continued to tell Serenity that Seto was the devil incarnate, and for a fleeting moment when she had ran into the man herself, stared into those blue eyes which seemed so fierce and angry, she had believed every word her brother had said. She had felt so very stupid as she sat there, unable to think, unable to do anything but wait for him to leave or slap her (whichever came first). And then his hand had been there. She had expect the pain to come to her face, and when it didn't, she was utterly surprised. His voice, smooth yet firm and commanding, came to her with the realization that he was helping her. As soon as she was standing, she realized how close to him she was, and how tall he was. She knew he was tall, but not _that_ tall. He stood a good foot taller than she was. It was then that she backed away and after saying her apology, ran, blushing fiercely.

Serenity knocked on the door to the Kame Game Shop and waited. After a minute or so, she knocked again. When no one answered, she walked around the side of the game shop and saw with great delight that the door to the garage was open. Loud voices were floating out from the inside. She jogged towards the noise, just as Tea and Mai stepped out.

"Serenity!" Mai screamed as she ran towards the younger girl. She wrapped her arms around her in a friendly hug, which Serenity returned. Then she hugged Tea, and the girls began to walk towards the back of the game shop, where the door to the basement was.

"We were put on drink duty because everyone else is dueling," Tea explained. "Yugi vs. Joey, Ryou vs. Mokuba, and Yami is trying to teach Sara how to play...which is just about as hopeless as Yami learning to speak French." Tea laughed.

"I ran into Kate on the way here. I am the lucky one who gets to fill in for you on Halloween," Serenity said to Tea, her eyes told of great unhappiness that was to come.

"Oh, yeah! Ryou and I are going out that night, and I called off. Who are you paired up with?" Tea asked, her usual friendly tone was in full-fledge, and Serenity thought that if this girl got any more chipper then she would implode.

"Tristan..." Serenity said slowly, as if she would rather say any other name than that one. " I'd rather be with Seto Kaiba than working with him!" She never knew how true her words would have to be put into action.

"I wouldn't voice your opinions to your brother if I were you," Mai warned as they reached the refrigerator and brought out some Coke-a-Colas. Each girl grabbed three cans of pop and headed back to the garage. Serenity thought of what she had just said and blushed. She remembered running into Seto Kaiba and she could still feel his icy breath on her cheek and neck. Serenity shivered involuntarily. She silently followed Mai and Tea back into the garage, where there was an upheaval of utter chaos as everyone said hello to Serenity and went to give her a hug. Now that almost everyone was present, the party could really start.

**Seto Kaiba**

Closing his computer down, Seto glanced at the clock which was stationed on the wall across from his desk.

7:30.

He had finished early. Seto did not wish to leave the comfort of his office. Those annoying fan girls waiting for him outside the building were almost too much for him to handle. Many of his headaches (including the one today) was caused by those girls begging him to go out with them, or asking him if he would sign their autograph books. Then they would pretend to pass out, falling towards him to see if he would catch them, just to tell their friends that _Seto Kaiba_ had caught them when they fell. He would just step away and let them fall, watching with amusement as they broke their fall with their hands and regained their composure. Never once had he helped any one of them up. Come to think of it, he had never really helped anyone up when they had fallen, save for "her".

That girl. The one that had so mindlessly walked into him, and had sat so very child-like in his presence. He had been surprised when she made no gushing comment on how wonderful his outfit was or something stupid that most of the other fans would have said. He doubted that she was even part of his fan club. He had studied her carefully as she walked away, the slender frame of a dancer, her luxuriously thick auburn mane, her small and delicate hands and face that simply glowed with innocence, and her beautiful honey colored eyes, which seemed to shimmer with every emotion that she had shown him. Seto wondered what kind of person she could be to captivate his interest so. Seto pondered over who she was and where she came from. He had never seen her at school, but she had been carrying a Domino High School backpack. He thought about everyone that he knew, their names and features passed through his head madly, spinning around as his mind tried to process where this girl was from.

For the first time in Seto's life, his mind came up blank.

Looking back at the clock, he saw that he had wasted almost half an hour with thinking about her. He pulled out a sleek blue cellphone and quickly dialed in a number.

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba, sir," A voice rang out from across the line, clear as a bell and attentive to his boss's command.

"Roland, pick me up in the back of the building in three minutes. One second late, and you're out of a job," Seto closed the cellphone with a loud click. He hoped that he could surprise Mokuba and pick him up at the Motou's house. He grabbed his laptop, shoved it roughly inside his bag, and began to walk out of the office doors. Hopefully he would be able to avoid the fan crowd. As the elevator doors opened onto the ground floor, a loud scream and the sound of shoes could be heard. The horde of crazed fan girls were seen.

"It's just not my day today," Seto muttered to himself as he rounded the corner leading to the back of the building, hoping to lose the annoyance of the ever-present fan girls on the way.

**At Yugi's**

The door to the garage opened once more, and everyone looked up in surprise. A tall, black-haired teen walked over the threshold and looked around, his sparkling green eyes taking in every object of the room. They lingered on Serenity for a moment before turning to Yugi.

"Great party, Yugi. Sorry I'm late," his red bandanna hung loosely around his styled hair. Mokuba waved his hand in a greeting, as Yami nodded.

"Glad you could make it, Duke," Joey said as the young man walked over to his friend and the two became immersed in conversation, Joey's blonde head bobbing up and down and Duke's eyes wandering over to Serenity every now and then as she sat in-between Mai and Tea. Serenity pretended not to notice as she continued her conversation with Tea and Mai.

"So what are you and Ryou doing on Halloween?" Mai asked, curious to know everything about everyone else's love life. Her eyes bored into Tea's as she asked.

"Nothing much, just hanging out earlier in the day watching scary movies. And then we are going to meet up with the rest of you to go trick-or-treating!" Tea said enthusiastically. She glanced at Ryou. "That is, if we can ever decide on what we are going to go as."

"How about dressing up like..." As Mai and Tea shot outfit ideas around and at each other, Serenity watched Yami dueling Yugi. Yami was clearly winning. She wished that she could get a better look at what was happening in the duel. She could just see the tiny Duel Monsters slashing and destroying one another on the small battlefield in front of them. Ever so slowly, she crept away from Mai and Tea (who never noticed that she had left) and slipped towards the table where the duels were being held. She had brought along her deck, but since she rarely dueled, she had no idea why she carried the thing around. She remembered Battle City, how she had cheered her brother on, and how she had silently cheered for Seto Kaiba when he was fighting for Mokie. She had not dueled since that time. But as she watched Yami and Yugi play a friendly game, she wondered about the cards that were inside her deck. She pulled them out of her back jeans pocket. Flipping through her cards she noticed that she had quite a good hand, if she used the right strategies. She slipped them back into her pocket and watched the duel. Yugi: 200, Yami: 1400. It was almost over. Serenity watched as Yami's Dark Magician card destroyed Yugi's Beaver Warrior, and the duel ended.

"Great game, Yami," Yugi commented as he gathered up his cards. "This means I have to wash the dishes for a month."

"Why?" Serenity piped up. Yugi stared at her for a moment before answering.

"Every time that one of us duels now, we make a bet. Like with me and Yami, I said that if I won, he had to clean my room for a month. Yami said that if he won, I had to wash the dishes after dinner for a month. Stuff like that. Really simple and way better than having to deal with penalty games."

Yami chuckled at Yugi's statement. "Yes, indeed," he laughed, his crimson eyes sparkling. "Does anyone dare challenge me again?" Yami looked around. Sara shook her head.

"NO, Yami! No more dueling!" Yugi cried out as he pushed his chair back from the table. Tea and Mai had stopped their conversation, and walked over to the guys.

"I have an idea," Mai started as she smiled coyly at all of the people in the room. "Let's play a game."

"Ooooh! What game?" Serenity piped up. She watched Mai as the blonde turned towards her, smiling evilly.

"Truth or Dare." Ryou couldn't help but suppress a shudder at Mai's statement. He thanked Ra that Bakura was safely at home away from this game. The penalties that would have come up had he been here... But he thought too soon.

Ryou/Bakura Mindlink

'I heard that, Ryou.' The white haired brown eyed yami asked his smaller hikari. Leaning against the door of his soul room, Bakura waited patiently as Ryou appeared in front of him and spoke.

/I was hoping you wouldn't./ Ryou muttered.

'What is this game that it was speaking of?' the spirit was filled with questions about this game. He had been to many parties with Ryou, which could be why Ryou had forbid him to come to this one, and had played many games, but never had he encountered this game of truth and dares.

/Truth or Dare, Bakura, a simple game, really./

'Truth or Dare,' Bakura thought about this game. Yes, his hikari had mentioned it before once, after playing it at a party. 'How would one play this strange game?'

/Well, a person starts the game by asking someone "Truth or dare," and depending upon the answer, the person who asked the question gives out an answer, or has to do something that the person who asked said./ Ryou watched as his white haired yami thought about what he had just said. Finally the white haired spirit looked at Ryou, a look of excitement on his face (something Bakura had never shown before).

'Anything?' Bakura smirked evilly. He thought about all of the things that one could make a person do...steal things, go to the Shadow Realm...kill Yami...anything...What an interesting consept.

/Yes, Bakura, anything./ Ryou thought about the gang...and how weird he must look having sort of zoned out.

'Can I come with you to play this Truth or Dare?' Bakura had not wreaked havoc in quite awhile, and was desperate for a chance to use shadow magic and humiliate that baka pharaoh.

/No shadow magic, Bakura./

'WHAT!' Bakura roared. Ryou flinched but regained his composer. Bakura was seething. He wanted to banish the pharaoh to the shadow realm forever. 'Just once, Ryou?'

/No. If you promise that you wont do any shadow magic, you can come./ Ryou said begrudgingly to Bakura. The spirit was overjoyed, but would he let Ryou see that? Not a chance. Bakura pondered over something, desperate for a chance to use the Shadow Magic.

'Can I use shadow magic to get there?' Bakura asked.

/The game shop is right down the block/ Ryou was exasperated.

'Fine. See you in a second.' The connection broke.

**Back to the Game Shop Garage**

Ryou opened his eyes and glanced around at the group.

"Bakura's coming," he said simply. Everyone stared at the white haired teen. Usually Bakura didn't come unless something had him really intrigued. "He wants to play Truth or Dare..." Ryou wondered if he did the right thing by telling his yami that he could come to the party. He hoped that Bakura would at least act semi-normal.

"I'm here," A new voice spoke and everyone turned to see Bakura standing in the doorway, his silky white hair trailing down his back. Since all of the Yami's had been given their own bodies, Bakura had refused to let Ryou give him a hair cut, henceforth resulting in extremely long hair. He trusted Ryou, but he didn't like it when Ryou came at him with the scissors to cut his hair. Bakura looked around the garage as he stepped in, dressed in blue jeans and a black shirt. The Millennium Ring hung lazily around his neck. "Pharaoh," he nodded to Yami.

"Tomb Robber," Yami glared. Sara looked at the ever so familiar exchange these two gave each other in their presence.

"Oh, you two! Come on let's play la jour!" Yet again, Sara had messed up her conjugations. "Whoops!" She smiled as she realized her mistake. Yami smiled down at her. Glancing up once more at Bakura, he answered.

"Yes, why don't we?" His crimson eyes sparkled with mischief. Bakura yawned as he walked over the threshold of the Motou garage and stepped next to Ryou and Tea.

"Hi, Bakura!" Serenity said, looking up at him, being much shorter. He half smiled, half smirked at the young girl. She simply curved her lips up into a small smile. "Thank you and Ryou for helping Joey and I paint the house last weekend, and helping me move in my furniture."

"No problem," he remembered moving in all of the Wheeler's furniture after painting. It had actually been a fun afternoon and Serenity had made them a wonderful dinner afterwards as a 'thank you'. Bakura inwardly smiled at the memory. He thought of this small girl as a younger sister, much like Ryou's sister Armane, and Bakura felt compelled to protect not only Ryou, but also Serenity.

"Come on, let's sit down," Serenity sat down and the rest followed in a circle. It went as follows (from Serenity's right): Mokuba, Mai, Joey, Sara, Yami, Yugi, Tea, Ryou, Duke, and ending at Serenity's left with Bakura. "Who's brave enough to go first?"

Tea raised her hand timidly. "Okay, first victim...Mai...Truth or Dare?" and the game started.

"Dare," Mai countered. "Do your worst, Tea Gardner!"

"I will. I dare you, Mai, to kiss...Duke, right now!" Mai looked at Tea, and smirked. Getting up, she walked over to Duke.

"Just a dare, just a dare, just a dare," Joey muttered underneath his breath as Mai, his girlfriend, slowly tipped Duke's head back and kissed him lightly on the lips. She then walked back to Joey and faced an astonished Tea.

"I didn't think you'd actually go through with it!" Tea exclaimed as Joey glared at her; she looked towards Mai for an explanation.

"You doubted me?" Mai laughed at the expression on Tea's face. Leaning towards Joey, she caught his lips quickly and whispered, "Don't stress it Joey." Joey gave one of his goofy grins to her and then with one last glare at the dazed and confused Duke, returned his attention to the game.

The game was going in circles, each person having to tell their most embarrassing moment, or something about themselves, or having to do something embarrassingly hilarious. Even Bakura got into the game and had a great time. Serenity gulped when it came to be her turn to ask a question.

"Bakura, Truth or Dare?" She eyed him closely, knowing what her dare was going to be. Serenity smirked inwardly, hoping that he would choose dare, for she had something perfect.

"Dare," Bakura grimaced, waiting to hear the direction that she would give him.

"Very well then. Yugi, do you have a CD player in the garage?"

"Yes," Yugi glanced at Serenity, and upon seeing a malicious glint in her eyes, asked. "Why?"

"We're going to need it," She replied. Grabbing her backpack, she found her CD case and grabbed one CD. Placing it in the player, she stood next to it. "Bakura, your dare...you have to dance with Yami."

She watched as he looked at her in horror. Yami glared at Serenity. Sara burst into giggles as she pushed Yami into a standing position. Bakura slowly walked up to the Pharaoh.

"Let's get this over with," Bakura grimaced once again. He glared at Serenity who was laughing along with all of the others. Yami looked mortified.

"Remember the dance we had to perform in the school play where everyone on stage was dancing?" Serenity asked both Yami and Bakura who had both been in the play, knowing that they had to remember it. "Well, I copied the CD, and all of the songs from the play are recorded on here. This is what you have to dance to. Remember the choreography?" They both nodded their heads and sent a glare to Serenity. Smiling, she walked over to the CD player. Pressing the play button a song blared out. Yami and Bakura started to dance using the dance moves that they had been practicing for weeks in drama class. Laughs, hoots, and snickers were heard from all over the room as the two continued to dance, each in his own space, staring out at the gang as the dance progressed. Yami and Bakura finished the dance with gracefulness. Everyone applauded and laughed.

"That was great, you guys!" Mokuba laughed as he looked up at the pair of teens. Yami and Bakura glanced at each other and burst into laughter, each falling to the floor, rolling with side spliting laughter.

"This means nothing, Pharaoh," Bakura growled though his laughter.

"I would expect nothing less, Tomb Robber," They glanced at each other and continued to laugh. For now at least the schism between the two was broken.

"My turn," Bakura finally sat down on the floor next to Serenity again. "Serenity, Truth or Dare?"

"Dare," Serenity smirked at Bakura, who smirked evilly back.

"You asked for it, Serenity Wheeler. Your dare..."

Aliccia: Sorry! I apologize! I know that school is a not a reason for not updating, and I will not use that as a scape goat. So please acept my apology and keep reviewing! Ryou: Yes, Aliccia is very sorry and she promises that she will continue updating as soon as she can. No promises this time!  
Aliccia: Forgive me! Oh and I need some ideas for the next chapter. Please give me some of your ideas inside your reviews. It would be greatly appreciated.  
Seto: -growls- This can get annoying after a while.  
Bakura: I was finally in this one. -starts to go through the story, re-reading everything-  
Aliccia: Yep! And I loved the way that you and Yami danced! It was perfect! -evil laughter insues- (The chapter is not to be taken the wrong way, it was by no means indicating a yaoi relationship between Yami and Bakura; it was all made in fun, and was not meant to bash Yami or Bakura...Please don't flame me for anything like that! We have an acing group in my school and I saw the dancing part for the two people and I had to add this in!)  
Bakura: -just got finishedreading the dance scene- Insolent authoress! I shall banish you to the Shadow Realm for writing that scene!  
Aliccia: Seto, Ryou! Save me!  
Ryou: Bakura, stop!  
Seto: Bakura, if you banish her, there will be no one to tell the story.  
Ryou: -helping Aliccia get away from Bakura while Seto is talking-  
Aliccia: Why is it that I am always running away from one of you at the end of the chappies?  
Bakura: Fine, I won't banish you. At least you embarrassed the Pharaoh.  
Aliccia: -comes out of hiding place with Ryou- Then would you please do the honors? -nods to reviewers-  
Bakura: What are you talking about?  
Seto: -sigh- Please review...  
Aliccia: Thank you Seto! Do as he says! Review this chapter and make this authoress a happy person!


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